Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	ceremony_n	church_n	rite_n	2,845	5	10.3412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03141	A coale from the altar. Or An ansvver to a letter not long since written to the Vicar of Gr. against the placing of the Communion table at the east end of the chancell; and now of late dispersed abroad to the disturbance of the Church. First sent by a iudicious and learned divine for the satisfaction of his private friend; and by him commended to the presse, for the benefit of others	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.; Williams, John, 1582-1650.	1636 (1636)	STC 13270.5; ESTC S119828	38,864	84

that ye see the table and yet come not to the meat But clearely Mensa illa in medio constituta is not to be interpreted The table set here in the middest as it is translated but The table which is heere before you According to the usuall meaning of the Latine phrase afferre in medium which is not to be construed thus to bring a thing precisely into the middle but to bring it to us or before us As for that passage from Durandus where it is said that he examining the cause why the Priest turneth himselfe about at the Altar ye●●ds this reason for it In medio Ecclesiae aperui os meum that proves not that the Altar stood in the middest of the Church but that the Priests stood at the middest of the Altar It is well known that many hundred yeares before hee was borne the Altars generally stood in the Christian Churches even as now they doe 6 NOw that wee may aswell say somewhat in maintenance of the Altars standing in the East part of the Church as wee have answered those autorities which were produced by the Epistoler for planting of it in the middlest wee will alleage one testimonie and no more but one but such a one as shall give very good assurance of that generall usage and in briefe is this Socrates in his Ecclesiasticall Historie lib. 5. c. 21. speaking of the different customes in the Christian Church saith of the Church of Antioch the chiefe Citty of Syria that it was built in different manner from all other Churches How so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the Altar was not placed to the East-ward but to the Westward Nicephorus Hist. lib. 12. cap. 24. observes it generally of all the Altars in that Citty and note 's withall that they were situate in a different manner from all other Altars And howsoever possibly in some other places which they knew not of the Altars might stand West-ward as they did in Antioch or to some other point of heaven as the North or South if any stood so yet it is manifest by this that in the generall practise of the Church the Altars used to stand to the Eastward onely So that for ought appeares unto the contrary in this Epistle the Vicar of Gr. might very safely hold his three Conclusions at the first remembred First that an Altar may be used in the Christian Church Secondly that the Table may stand Altar-wise the Minister officiating at the North-end thereof And thirdly that the Table may stand constantly in the upper part of the Chancell close along the wall not to bee taken downe either in the First or Second Service especially if the Mini●ter there standing may be seene and heard of al the Congregation With the which Summarie of mine I had concluded this reply had I not found this Item given unto the Vicar in the close of all that by that time hee had gained more experience in the cure of Soules he should find no such Ceremony as Christian Charity Where if his meaning be that Christian Charity is in it selfe more precious than any Ceremony no doubt it will be easily grante● it being by St. ●aul preferred before Faith and Hope But if hee meane that they which have the cure of Soules should rather choose to violate all the Orders of holy Church and neglect all the Ceremonies of the same then give offence unto the Brethren the Children of the Church as before hee called them it is like many other Passages before remembred onely a trick to please the people and p●t the reines into their hands who are too forwards in themselves to contemne all Ceremonie though in so doing they doe breake in sunder the bonds of Charitie 7. I Have now ended with the Letter and for your further satisfaction will lay downe somewhat touching the ground or reason of the thing required not in it selfe for that is touched upon before but as it either doth relate unto the King the Metropolitan or in your case the Ordinarie which requires it from you For the true ground whereof you may please to know that in the Statute 1● Eliz. cap. 2. whereby the Common Praier booke now in use was confirmed and established it was enacted That if there shall happen any irreverence or contempt to be used in the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church by misusing the Orders appointed in the same that then the Queenes Majestie by the advise of her Commissioners for causes Ecclesiasticall or of the Metropolitan might ordeine or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as may bee most for the advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christ's holy Mysteries and Sacraments A power not personall to the Queene onely when she was alive but such as was to be continued also unto her successours So that in case the Common Praier booke had determined positively that the Table should be placed at all times in the middle of the Church or Chancell which is not determined of or that the Ordinarie of his owne autoritie could not have otherwise appointed which yet is not so the Kings most excellent Majestie on information of the irreverent usage of the holy Table by all sorts of people as it hath beene accustomed in these latter daies in sitting on it in time of Sermon and otherwise prophanely abusing it in taking Accounts and making Rates and such like businesses may by the last clause of the said Statute for the due reverence of Christ's holy Mysteries and Sacraments with the advice and counsell of his Metropolitan command it to bee placed where the Altar stood and to be railed about for the greater decencie For howsoever in the Act the Queen be onely named not her Heires and Successours yet plainly the autoritie is the same in them as it was in her which may be made apparant by manie Arguments drawne from the Common Law and the Act it selfe First from the purpose of that clause which was to fence the Rites and Cereremonies of the Church then used from all irreverence and contempt and for the publishing of such other Rites and Ceremonies as might in further time be found convenient for the advancement of Gods glorie the edifying of his Church and the procurement of due reverence to Christ's holy Sacraments But seeing that the Rites●nd ●nd Ceremonies of the Church were not onely subject unto Irreverence and contempt in the said Queenes time but are and have been sleighted and irreverently abused in time of her Successors the Act had ill provided for the Churches safetie in case the power of rectifying what was amise either by ordering of new Rites or stablishing the old did not belong aswell to her Successours as it did to her Next fro● the verie phrase and stile which is there used For it is said the Queene with the advice of the Metropolitan might ordeine and publish c. the Queene indefinitely and the Metropolitan indefinitely If then by Queene